Shovel the darn sidewalk, please! Duluth asks nicely
Updated 10:10 a.m.
Duluth is very hilly, and it snows in the winter. This has been true of the region for thousands of years.
Leaders and advocates, though, continue to struggle with a fundamental question nearly as old: How do you get Duluthians to clear their sidewalks after a snowstorm?
That bit of civic duty is vital to people who otherwise must contend with icy, snowy sidewalks and risk being hurt, or forced into the street alongside speeding cars to get to work, school or the grocery store.
City officials say they’re working to improve conditions. Duluth is in its second year of enforcing a shoveling ordinance. But the need remains, and residents trying to navigate the mess are frustrated.
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“You'll have a spot where you're walking through, and you kind of have to choose: Do I climb over 2 or 3 feet of plow snow, which not everybody can do, or do I walk in the street?” said Athena Hatfield, a Minnesotan spending their first winter in Duluth.
Hatfield, 23, has noticed that city plows dump snow onto the sidewalks and people may not be able to clear them again when that happens; intersections can be hazardous.
“As I step out into an intersection, if I'm having to focus on not losing my footing over a pile of slick snow, trying to get out because it's usually like a foot mound in a lot of places, then I'm not looking for cars as well,” Hatfield said.
Shawna Mullen has lived in Duluth for 12 years. Her 10-year-old daughter walks from the school bus. When sidewalks are covered in snow, her only option is to walk in the street, and Mullen will leave work to walk with her because it isn’t safe.
“Sidewalk access in the winter is terrible,” she said. “Sidewalks are just completely inaccessible. And it’s not like here and there. It’s a huge issue, like everywhere, all across the city.”
Mullen said she has submitted complaints online, listing addresses where she has seen snow pile up again and again. “It just goes into this black hole. You don't know what the city is doing about it, but what I see on the ground is that it doesn't result in those people clearing their sidewalks.”
Complaints, but some residents don’t see results
Melanie Lahr said she can’t walk to her child’s preschool, though it’s only seven blocks away from home. Large snow piles block the sidewalk, and it feels especially precarious around Sixth Avenue East, she said.
Like Mullen, Lahr said she has filed complaints about snow not being shoveled. She hasn’t filed any this year, though, because she didn’t see results in the past and it discouraged her.
“I have thought about moving to another neighborhood, but I don't really think it's any better anywhere else,” she said.
Evan Hawbaker, 32, works at a Duluth homeless shelter for teenagers, and he takes the bus during the winter. He walks in the streets when sidewalks aren’t shoveled. The young people he works with depend on public transportation, too, he said. They need to be able to get around safely on foot.
“Just one house on a block can make an entire sidewalk useless and kick a bunch of people into the street. And nobody wants to be driving in already crowded, icy, slushy streets when there's kids walking to the school bus, when there's moms with groceries in their hands walking their kids down the middle of the road,” Hawbaker said. “Nobody wants to see somebody pushing a walker walking down the road while it's snowing because the sidewalks are not clear.”
Julie Mead is 55, and she uses a crutch to help her walk. She said sidewalks covered in snow can be dangerous and scary.
“I’m disabled so it's hard for me to get around, period, but to try to navigate that it's just, it's impossible. I live by a busy street, that's a thoroughfare for the east and west of Duluth. And it's terrifying to try to get across the street to go walk down by the lake or to do anything,” she said.
Narrowly shoveled paths with snow still piled high on either side aren’t accessible for her.
“I actually have to take my crutch and then just kind of use that alongside of me to kind of pull myself forward and everything and keep my torso up and it's just, it's crazy,” she added. “It just makes you want to stay in your house and not do anything.”
Roberta Cich is legally blind, and a longtime disability advocate.
“I know that there's been a lot of public service announcements that the city has put out talking about neighbors helping neighbors, and how important it is. I think part of the problem is, people don't always know whose responsibility it is — who's responsible for the curb cuts at the corner, who's responsible for the fire hydrants, who's responsible to keep the bus shelters accessible and clear of snow,” Cich said.
“It is the community’s right to be able to use sidewalks, and to expect the sidewalks are going to be clear so they don’t have to worry about slipping or falling on ice,” said Kate Van Daele, Duluth’s public information officer.
‘What sidewalk?’
Duluth is in its second year of enforcing a snow removal ordinance that mandates clearance 24 hours after snowfall. Some 354 complaints have been filed this year — 134 were dismissed because of lack of specific address, duplicates or filing before the 24-hour window had passed. Van Daele said people have seven days to clear their sidewalks of snow, once inspectors respond to a valid complaint.
When time’s up, the city hires a contractor, and the property owner is billed. Eight cases have been cleared by contractors, when property owners did not take action themselves. Others have complied within the seven-day window.
Van Daele has noticed positive results in her own neighborhood, where she said shoveling has become more consistent. She said the city is updating the complaint system, too, so that soon residents will be able to track the complaints they file and see where they are in the enforcement process.
The city also has a volunteer Snow Removal Assistance Program, which helps as many as 20 seniors and disabled residents with sidewalk snow removal.
Amanda Crosby, who works at an independent living center and volunteers with the program, said last year some of the people she helped left a sign out for her that read, “Thank you so much to all the snow fairies.”
She knows there are far more residents who need help shoveling.
“Turning people away just breaks my heart, but there needs to be more volunteers,” Crosby said.
Alice Tibbetts, who organizes the group We Walk in Duluth, has been advocating for years for improved sidewalk clearing protocol.
She notices certain businesses along London Road clearing only their parking lots, and leaving sidewalks covered in snow.
“We're just not seeing the results of enforcement with a lot of businesses,” she said. “If they're getting letters telling them it's their job, they seem to be ignoring it.”
She said she stops in to visit businesses to tell them, “Hey! You have to clear your sidewalk!” They often respond to her by asking, “What sidewalk?”
“We want the city to do its job,” Tibbetts said. “But we don't expect the city to do everything. … This is something we all have to do.”